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Acasta-class destroyer
|Class before= |Class after=L-class destroyer |Subclasses= |Cost= |Built range=1912–1913 |In service range= |In commission range=1912–1923 |Total ships building= |Total ships planned= |Total ships completed=20 |Total ships cancelled= |Total ships active= |Total ships laid up= |Total ships lost=7 |Total ships retired= |Total ships preserved= }} |module2= to |Ship beam= to |Ship draught= to |Ship power= |Ship propulsion= Standard K-class: * 2-shaft Parsons steam turbines * Yarrow-type oil-fired boilers Acasta, Achates, Ambuscade: * 2 shaft Brown-Curtis steam turbines * Yarrow-type oil-fired boilers |Ship speed= - |Ship complement=75 - 77 |Ship armament= * Three QF L/40 Mark IV guns, mounting P Mk. IX (last 7 ships)H.M.S.O. (1916). The Sight Manual. Pub. No. OU 6026. p. 80. ADM 186/216 else P Mk VIIMarch. British Destroyers, p. 127. * One QF 2 pdr pom-pom Mk. II * 2 x single tubes for torpedoes }} }} The Acasta class (in September 1913 re-designated the K class) was a class of twenty destroyers built for the Royal Navy under the Naval Programme of 1911 - 1912 that saw service during World War I. They were the last class of Royal Navy destroyers to have mixed names with no systematic theme (see naming conventions for destroyers of the Royal Navy for more information.) When the class was designated as "K", names beginning with that letter were allocated to the ships but never used.No class of ships were designated as J class.Norman Friedman, British Destroyers, From Earliest Days to the Second World War 2009 ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 p. 129 The class saw extensive wartime service and seven were lost, including four at the Battle of Jutland. Design The Acastas were larger and heavier armed than the preceding H and I classes (''Acorn'' and ''Acheron'', respectively), displacing about 25% more and with the mixed calibre armament replaced with a uniform fit of QF 4-inch guns, which the Acasta''s introduced. Previous weapons had been of the breech-loading (BL) type. The guns were shipped one each on the forecastle and either side abreast the after torpedo tube (or amidships before and after the tube in some ships.) All ships had three funnels, the foremost being tall and narrow, the second short and wide and the third level with the second but narrower. The foremost torpedo tube was sited between the second and third funnels, a distinctive feature of this class. There were twelve 'standard' vessels built to a common Admiralty design, and eight builders' specials that (except for ''Garland) had a shorter, less beamy hull; five of the latter were from Thornycroft with , one by Parsons that made on trials, a seventh from Fairfields, and an eighth by William Denny, Dumbarton. Service At the outbreak of World War I until mid-1916, the Acastas were serving in the Grand Fleet as the 4th Destroyer flotilla, with ''Swift'' as leader. By the time of Jutland the leader was the ''Faulknor''-class leader ''Tipperary'', with Ardent, Fortune, Shark and Sparrowhawk lost in the course of the battle and Acasta was so badly damaged that she had to be practically rebuilt. After Jutland the remainder of the flotilla moved to the Humber and then to Portsmouth by the end of 1916, before dispersing, some ships to the 6th Destroyer Flotilla and the Dover Patrol and the remainder to Devonport. All survivors of the war were sold out of service for scrapping by 1921. Ships Admiralty K class Builders' special K class File:HMSSpitfireJutlanddamage.jpg|HMS Spitfire showing damage sustained at Jutland File:HMS Ambuscade.jpg|HMS Ambuscade File:HMS Hardy (1913).jpg|HMS Hardy at speed File:HMS Ardent (1913).jpg|HMS Ardent See also *K-class destroyer (1938) Notes References Bibliography *''Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981'', Maurice Cocker, 1983, Ian Allan ISBN 0-7110-1075-7 External links Category:Destroyer classes Acasta-class destroyers Category:World War I destroyers of the United Kingdom